AN: Wow! I'm stunned by all the reviews and comments you guys have left — thank you. Reading those is the highlight of my day. Now, on to the case! Huge thanks to Kesterpan for working out the science behind it.

NCIS: Act 3

Before the babble of voices could get out of hand, Gibbs whistled and the rooms were silent.

"Hetty, where's Hanna now?" Gibbs asked.

The operations manager pressed her lips together. "In the field, with Detective Deeks. Agents Callen and Blye are undercover at a Naval R&D lab where we suspect somebody is stealing research to sell to the highest bidder." She held up a hand. "Yes, Commander, I believe that research could be part of the missing material."

McGarrett held up his hands. "I never knew much about what that research was. How do you know?"

"Why, Commander, who do you think told the Agency about the Russian mission in the first place?" Hetty smiled, and McGarrett suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.

"Does somebody want to fill in the rest of us?" McGee asked.

Vance nodded, then looked at each person in the room, plus Hetty, before speaking.

"Operation Strawberry Fields began in 1980," Vance said. The director held up a hand before Danny could point out that Steve was just a child then. Steve wondered when he had started being able to predict what Danny was going to rant.

Vance explained: "Acting on information received from an agent who had been in Afghanistan" — he tipped his head toward Hetty — "when the Soviets invaded on Christmas Eve 1979, the CIA opened a file and codenamed it Strawberry Fields."

"The Soviets doubted their ability to retain influence in Afghanistan for the long haul," Hetty said. "They knew the Mujahideen had the hearts of much of the nation, and they wanted a way to destabilize the regime from within. So the Soviets sent a pair of Russian scientists into a remote region of the country."

"Isn't all of Afghanistan remote?" DiNozzo asked.

"Much of it is, Agent DiNozzo, and that is what the Soviets counted on," Hetty replied. "I learned that the Soviets were determined to attack the Mujahideen from the inside by undermining the opium trade."

"That's the key source of funding for the Mujahideen," Steve said. "Poppies from the mountainous regions provide more opium and heroin than the Afghani people can export to drug dealers the world over." He felt his legs tremble and forced himself to stay in parade rest.

"The Soviets were bloody clever," Hetty said. "They brought two of their own scientists into the mountainous region near the Pakistan border and set them up with a lab where they could work to engineer a new type of poppy — one that targeted the cardiac cells in the body."

"Doing what?" Gibbs asked.

"The drug was altered to block the receptors in the cardiac cells so that they couldn't handle the normal cellular functions," Hetty said. "When the Soviets first invaded, the effects were swift. Within two days of ingesting drugs from the altered plants, the user's cardiac cells would fill with water and burst."

"That's why the SEAL's heart exploded," McGee said. "But why now, after more than 30 years?"

"Because," Hetty said. "When the experiment began, the effects were too quick. Putting that opium on the market would have caused short-term pain. Once the word got out that Afghani opium and heroin were dangerous, nobody would buy them."

"Thus drying up the funding source for the Mujahideen," Vance said. "But that's not what happened."

"No," Hetty said. "The Soviets had something far more sinister in mind. As a result, even after they left Afghanistan, the scientists remained, up until one of them died about 10 years ago."

"That's when our team was brought in," Steve said, after doing the math in his head.

"You've been playing around with drugs, babe?" Danny asked, putting a hand on Steve's back. Steve refused to admit that he leaned into the arm behind him for support.

"We did a swap," Steve said. "Permission to read them in?" he asked Hetty.

"Yes, but not until you sit down before you fall down," she replied. "Honestly, Jethro, I know he's not one of yours, but you should be taking care of him."

"I'm-" Steve started.

"No, you're not," Danny said. "Sit, before I go find Grace so she can tell you."

Steve rolled his eyes, but moved to the front row of the theater-style seats and sat. "About ten years ago, my CO put me on a five-man team with an eyes-only mission," he said.

"Five?" Tony said. "You said four before."

"There were five of us going in," Steve said. "Walters, the fifth man, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three weeks earlier."

"He also was very similar in appearance to the one remaining Russian scientist," Hetty said. "The Agency and the Navy approached Chief Walters with a proposal for a terminal mission."

"We took Walters into the mountains to locate the lab," Steve continued. "Once we got there, we extracted the scientist and Walters took his place. There were no doctors there besides the scientist, and no modern medicine except the lab experiments. Walters knew that without treatment, he'd be dead within the month, and everybody who knew about the lab would think the last scientist was dead. He also was supposed to destroy enough of the research that nobody would be able to replicate it."

"Once the SEAL team returned with the scientist, the Navy brought him to the United States and installed him at a lab in Los Angeles," Hetty said. "He has been continuing his research there, with every available resource. At this point the experiment has gone past the original goal. The Navy wanted to destroy the original lab because the scientists had been successful far beyond what anybody imagined."

"Successful how?" Danny asked. "Successful in killing a SEAL?"

Steve reached over and put a hand on Danny's arm, restraining him.

"When the SEAL team completed its mission, we discovered that the mountain lab had entirely new strains of several plants," Hetty said. "All had been altered to impact the cardiac cells of any living being that ingested them. Once ingested, the person was doomed. In two to three weeks, the person's cardiac cells would be irreparably damaged, or to use Agent McGee's term, they would explode. If animals ate them, the flesh of the animals also was contaminated."

"And after two weeks, nobody would link the original substance to the death," Tony said. "They developed a bioweapon that would be almost impossible to contain before it caused havoc."

"Indeed," Hetty said. "Imagine infesting the feed of cattle just a week away from slaughter. The flesh would be contaminated, yet the animals would be killed before they started dying. As their meat was sold and spread around the country, people would begin dying, but far too late to stop this. The chain could go on forever."

"So why is this just coming up now?" Steve asked. "Our mission was ten years ago."

"Hetty mentioned the case her team is assigned to," Vance said. "That lab is the one where the research was moved to once your team extracted the scientist. About two weeks ago, we received a tip that the lab had been compromised."

"I sent agents Callen and Blye in undercover," Hetty said. "Detective Deeks, as Detective Williams can attest to, does not fit the mold of a Navy scientist, and I didn't want to risk Sam encountering any former colleagues."

"But if the infected food or drug takes two weeks to kill, and the SEAL died a week ago, that means he was already infected by the time you got the tip," McGee said.

"McCalculator has a point," Tony said. "How do we know this hasn't already started?"

"We don't," Hetty said. "But our Miss Jones has picked up chatter about the sale of the research, not its use. We just didn't know what was on the market until your investigation into the attack on Commander McGarrett."

Gibbs held up a hand. "Hetty, you get your team in from the field as quickly as possible without blowing their cover. DiNozzo, McGee-"

"Figure out how Lt. Singer was poisoned and why McGarrett was only attacked," Tony said.

"And check into the fourth SEAL to find out where he is and warn him," McGee said. "On it, Boss."

The two men hurried out.

"Leon, I'll contact you once I have my team rounded up so we can continue this discussion," Hetty said. She cut the video feed, leaving a test pattern on the screen.

"What can we do to help?" Steve asked.

"Duck, check him over," Gibbs said. "McGarrett, go see Grace."

"Absolutely," Dr. Mallard said. "Come, my dear boy. I can examine you in Abby's lab."

Steve nodded, and didn't argue when Danny helped him up. His ribs ached despite being taped, and his muscles were starting to stiffen.

~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~

Abby looked through the glass doors to her office to see Grace sitting at the lab table with her bunny and Bert, talking to them. She turned back to the main lab just as Ducky led in Grace's dad and a tall man who could only be McGarrett.

"Ah, Abigail. Could we borrow your office table so I can examine Commander McGarrett? Once he's seen your young charge, that is."

"Sure, Duckman," Abby said. "Right back here, Steve."

"How is Grace?" Danny asked. "Where is Grace?"

"Relax, Danny," Abby said. "She and her fuzzy friends are in my office." She pressed the button to open the slider. "Grace, somebody's here to see you."

When the girl looked up and saw Steve and Danny, her eyes got big and she almost tripped trying to get down to see them. Abby caught her as she was about to rush past.

"Remember what we talked about Grace, about gentle hugs?" Abby said.

"I remember, Miss Abby," Grace said, and she slowed down before going over and wrapping her arms around Steve's waist. "Uncle Steve! Did you catch the bad men who did this to you yet?"

"No, Gracie, but we will, real soon." Steve lay a hand on her head and the other on her shoulder. "Now, why don't you go see Danno. Dr. Mallard has to take a look at me, okay?"

"Call me Ducky," the medical examiner said. "Everybody does."

Grace giggled. "Ducky's a funny name," she said.

"You must be Grace," Ducky said, bending down to be closer to her height. "It's because a mallard is a kind of duck."

"You remember the birds with the green heads that would swim in the river near Nana and Grandpa's house, right Monkey?" Danny asked, reaching out to put an arm around her. "Those are mallards."

"I remember, Danno." Grace nodded. "Dr. Ducky, are you taking care of Uncle Steve?"

"I am indeed," he said. "Now, why don't you and Abigail and your father go wait in the lab."

Abby took the hint and herded Danny and Grace out of the room.

Once the door to the main lab was shut, Danny stopped. "Look, Abby, I'm sorry about earlier. I just- You weren't what I was expecting."

"Just don't let it happen again," Abby said. She smiled to take the sting out of her words and walked over to where Grace was staring at the photo on the wall above the printer. She decided she'd better distract the girl before she asked Abby what it was and Danny started ranting all over again.

~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~

Gibbs stayed behind the others in MTAC.

"How bad?" he asked Vance.

"I don't need to tell you that, Gibbs," Vance replied. "The one thing the Navy hasn't figured out is an accurate test to determine if somebody's infected. With that two-week window, once a foreign power or terrorist cell unleashes this weapon, it will be almost impossible to stop it."

"McGarrett?" Gibbs asked.

"We can't test him," Vance said. "Or Agent Hanna or Master Chief Wardell. We just have to wait, and hope that whoever these bastards are, they stick to methods we can detect and stop."

Gibbs nodded and left. By the time he reached the bullpen, McGee was just setting the phone down.

"Master Chief Wardell is still in the SEALs and on a classified overseas mission, Boss," McGee said. "His CO said they've been on the mission for six weeks, no security breaches that he's aware of. It'll be another week before they're due to make contact again, and his CO asked that we keep him informed."

Gibbs nodded and turned toward DiNozzo.

"Boss, I've got NCIS in Newport going to Lt. Singer's house to talk to his widow and get as much detail as possible about his movements in a one-week window around when we think he was poisoned," DiNozzo said.

"McGarrett?" Gibbs asked.

"I've got a theory," DiNozzo said. "The man lives on Hawaii, and any food going on or off the island is subject to inspection and quarantine or confiscation. They couldn't risk drugging him because he would notice and the whole point of this seems to be keeping the victim in the dark until it's too late."

"So you're thinking that they used his trip as a chance to attack him and figured Metro would put it down to a random mugging?" McGee said. "But that means they had to know about the trip."

"That's not the real question, McObvious," Tony said. "Did they know about the trip before they poisoned Lt. Singer?"

"That was three weeks ago," McGee said. "McGarrett said he planned the trip back in July, so it's possible."

"Lab tip?" Gibbs asked.

"Eric in LA is probably working on that angle," McGee said. "I can ask him, but I wasn't sure if you wanted me to before we talked to the LA team."

Gibbs shook his head. "Surveillance?"

DiNozzo sent something to the plasma. "They picked their spot well, Boss," he said. "There are cameras at either end of the alley, but none on the alley itself." He started a clip. "This is the dirtbags leaving, but they split up on foot and disappeared within a block."

"Black hoodies are common this time of year," McGee said. "All they had to do was duck into a doorway and take the cap off, ditch it and the hoodie, and they could blend into the crowd. Even with McGarrett's descriptions, we don't have much to go on."

"Keep looking," Gibbs said. He headed out to get coffee. He had a feeling this was going to be a long day.

~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~

Vance made a few calls once the team had scattered, including one to Hawaii. He checked his watch, then headed back to MTAC. He stopped on the catwalk to catch Gibbs' eye. The team leader nodded, and Vance knew everybody who needed to be there would.

By the time he had both sites up on screen in MTAC, the MCRT, plus McGarrett and Williams, were walking in.

"Chin, Kono?" McGarrett said.

"You two can't even take a vacation without getting into trouble," said Chin-Ho Kelly. "Director Vance, thank you again for looping us in."

"You're quite welcome, Detective Kelly," Vance said. "Now, as I believe Detective Williams is the only person that everybody here has met, let me do some introductions. Lieutenant Kelly, Officer Kalukaua, I'm Leon Vance, director of NCIS. Agent Gibbs leads our Major Case Response Team, working with agents DiNozzo and McGee." He pointed to each person in turn, and they raised a hand. "In Los Angeles, we have our Office of Special Projects, led by Operations Manager Hetty Lange. Most of you have met Agents G Callen, Sam Hanna and Kensi Blye. Detective Deeks is our LAPD liaison, Eric Beale is our tech ops specialist and Nell Jones is our intelligence analyst." He looked to Lt. Commander McGarrett, who stepped forward.

"I'm Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett, and this is Detective Danny Williams with me in Washington. In Hawaii, Lt. Chin-Ho Kelly and Officer Kono Kalukaua make up the other half of Hawaii 5-0, which is the governor's task force."

Vance nodded. "Thank you, Commander. Agent Callen, has Hetty briefed you?"

"She has, Director," Callen said. "We've made some inroads at the lab, but we haven't been able to figure out who's leaking the intel, yet. We have been able to confirm that the scientist McGarrett and Sam smuggled out of Afghanistan is still there. Kensi and Eric are working on getting her switched to his lab as a tech, now that we know that's the leaked intel."

Vance nodded. "Lt. Kelly, do you have anything to add?"

"Kono and I went to check out Steve's house on our way here, and it's secure," Kelly said. "I've checked our system for breaches, but nothing comes up. So either this guy is good at hacking or they found out the information about Steve and Danny's plans from another source."

"Thank you, Lt. Kelly," Vance said. "Now, all of you. Because of the unprecedented nature of this case and its importance to national security, I've spoken to Governor Denning and he's agreed to allow NCIS to borrow 5-0 until we can solve this. Since Agent Hanna is likely still a target and the research was leaked from the lab in California, OSP will be the headquarters for the investigation. Gibbs, you and your team, including Abby, will leave from Anacostia in thirty on a C-130. Commander McGarrett, you, Detective Williams and his daughter will accompany them." He turned to look at the screen. "Lt. Kelly, I will have a C-130 for you and Officer Kalukaua at Pearl Harbor/Hickam in 50 minutes. Hetty, both teams should land within 30 minutes of each other."

"Very good," Hetty said. "Commander McGarrett, I'll expect your team in six hours. Jethro, I'll have that rotgut you insist on drinking ready so we can celebrate once our combined teams end this. The rest of us will enjoy a good single malt."

"Thank you," Vance said. "Lt. Kelly, your C-130 will be ready in 47 minutes."

"Mahalo," Chin said. "Come on, cuz." The Hawaii feed cut out.

"Gibbs, you have 25 minutes to get to Anacostia before your ride leaves," Vance said.

"Boss, we've still got to get Abby and Grace," Tony said.

"Hang on, what about all our stuff?" Danny asked.

"As soon as we realized the LA connection, I sent agents to your hotel to get it, Detective Williams," Vance said. "They will meet you at the plane." He looked at his wrist. "In 23 minutes."

Gibbs nodded and headed out of MTAC, everybody following behind.